CBA Lunch & Learn: A Talmud of America - Jewish Commentaries on the Declaration of Independance

Anniversaries invite reflection and renewal. As we approach the 250th anniversary of the United States Declaration of Independence, there will be no shortage of ceremony.
For Jews, reflection and renewal take a different form. They are elicited through text study. Our most enduring words do not simply remind us of who we once aspired to be; they press us to ask how well we have lived up to them and how they might yet speak with urgency in our own time.
The Talmud preserves its arguments because they matter. It teaches that truth is rarely the product of easy agreement, but of sustained engagement with complexity. To create a “Talmud of America” is to extend that practice outward, to treat the United States Declaration of Independence not as a conclusion, but as a beginning.
This, then, is our contribution to the nation that has been both refuge and home for the Jewish people since its earliest days; a country which, in the words of George Washington, offers “to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”
Perhaps this is the most fitting way to mark such an anniversary. Not only to celebrate the words themselves, but to take our place among those who continue to interpret them.
All texts will be shared in English. No prior reading and learning is necessary. You just need to be interested and join us.
This is a lunch and learn which means that eating during class is acceptable and encouraged. This class will be taught by Rabbi Prass.
If you are interested in joining us, email rabbiprass@bethambg.org for the zoom link.